February 1, 2021
Air Force opts not to fly F-16s over Gila Written by Geoffrey Plant on February 1, 2021
(Press File Photo by Geoffrey Plant)
Mike Ferris, shown testifying, was one of more than 500 people who showed up to a December 2019 public hearing at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center regarding the draft environmental impact statement related to the proposed expansion of military training flights in southern New Mexico. The hearing was one of eight that were held in affected communities across southern New Mexico.
According to a final environmental impact statement released last week, the U.S. Air Force has determined that expanding military airspace over the Gila National Forest and Silver City in order to accommodate an annual 10,000 F-16 training flights out of Holloman Air Force Base is not the best way to fulfill its goal of “optimizing the training airspace